Chapter 3

Family

Jack Frost


Jack wasn't exactly paying attention when the spirit below him stopped. He'd been busy noticing how she was kind of adorable when she was irritated. Her nostrils flared, dark brows moved together over darker skin and her full lips puckered into a pout. He shot 30 feet beyond where the nature spirit had stopped abruptly. Flipping right side up, he swung back over to her cautiously, suspecting a trick. The lingering smirk that was still on his face fell a fraction when he saw her.

So far the only thing Jack had seen this spirit, Adaliah, doing with those intriguing eyes of hers was frown and glare. A smile was new, baffling really. Although he guessed it didn't really count since it was so obviously a fake. Did she think she was fooling anyone? If she was really smiling she wouldn't still have that suspicious glint in her eyes. What would she look like if she actually smiled?

Jack wanted to see her smile. He wanted her to smile at him.

Embarrassment overcame him. That was not something he thought normally. Where the hell had that come from? Maybe it was because he smiled so much that seeing everyone do the same was just natural. Or maybe he just liked a challenge… He could tell getting this particular spirit to open up would be almost more than he could handle. Almost.

Jack's interest piqued as the girl smiled and he got his first full look at her since they had collided.

Adaliah was not otherworldly beautiful like Tooth nor was she a human kind of gorgeous. A better word to suit her was 'cute'. Long black hair and chocolate skin with a white dress tied at her waist made her look like she was pretending to be Cleopatra, but minus the headdress. And while her body was definitely something any guy would like wrapped around them – the thought made Jack's heartbeat pick up a little – her face wouldn't turn heads. She had a wide nose like an Asian but it didn't match her dark African skin. She looked… rough; like evolution hadn't completely finished morphing her from ancient to modern. The strange blue webbed eyes set into her dark face made Jack's temperature drop lower. They were like iced over cobwebs; rings of green encircling her irises and he began to feel dazed like he was sinking into them. Shaking his head he came back to the present. Adaliah was still beaming at him but without the emotion really touching those enticing eyes.

"This conversation has been so fascinating Frost," She didn't call him Jack and the corners of his lips dropped a little more. Somewhere in his mind Jack registered how disappointed he was that she didn't feel friendly towards him at all. Most people were. Maybe he just wasn't used to fluttered her lashes again wrenching Jack out of his inner dissection. He blinked in surprise the already miniscule smirk giving way to the stunned look creeping over his face. "And I would love to continue it but I really am busy and now I need to go." Her smile changed to slightly vicious. "Leave my business to me Frost, I have no time for a Ninigiku" Adaliah fluttered her lashes again and vanished into her winds.

Poof.

Jack spent almost an hour spinning around the spot where the intriguing spirit had vanished. They had been flying over an expanse of forest somewhere in Russia. There'd been a freeze in Western Europe that he'd had to facilitate.

Twilight climbed over the horizon and dyed the forest black, leaching the blue out of the sky leaving burgeoning pink and gold in its wake. His thoughts drifted toward his quarry. What would she look like in twilight? Maybe she'd look like a shadow in the sky. Maybe the light would touch her eyes and transform them into piercing orbs. Not that she needed any help with that. And her vanishing act. That automatic grin broke across Jack's face again.

Wish I could do that. It'd make pranks on Bunny so much more fun.

She'd left him in open air far from civilization in any direction. He circled to the nearest villages to see if she had hid in one of them to get him off her trail. She'd done pretty well so far with the whole teleporting thing. Even the Wind was pulling Jack in different directions obviously torn over which way she had gone. He'd tried all the horizontal escape routes and if Adaliah had just taken off up and out he'd never catch her at this point. Maybe down in the forest...?

And just what the hell had she called him? He'd have to ask North or Sandy what a… Nini…giku was.

The Wind began to sweep Jack low over the dense trees when a golden glittering cloud in the distance caught his eye. Speak of the devil. He looked to the sky and saw that dark was gaining on him. Crap. He'd promised Tooth he would be home in time for dinner.

Wow. That entire thought right there, that's crazy.

Before the Guardians Jack hadn't really ever eaten anything, hadn't really had a home. He didn't feel the need to eat because his power was based on the seasons and not any kind of food intake. The home problem was a kind of half-truth. Burgess- or the lake right outside of it- was where he went when he wanted to settle down and sleep. But wasn't a home supposed to be more than just a place that you can collapse in? Shouldn't it be where you are comfortable? Where you can go after a hard day and talk to someone? Not a place where no one will bother you. Shouldn't it be…?

Fun?

But now he was a Guardian, now he had them, Jack returned to the lake only to reminisce about his past life or help the kids of Burgess go ice-skating. He had an actual home now. The tower standing over the sheer cliff at North's Workshop was now his home. Frost covered everything up there in a misty sheen marking it as his. But though that was where he slept it was definitely not the only home he had. The entire workshop was open to Jack and he'd taken full advantage of that. But North had officially banned him from the Yetis washroom after the eighth 'Locked in again and the showers are pelting us with ice' from Phil and the others.

Jack's mind returned to giant gold sand cloud over the nearest town and he grinned. After glancing at the sky one more time he set out at an exhilarating speed laughing the whole way so that he'd be back on time and Tooth didn't kick his butt.

Right on time as usual, he thought fondly. He raised my hand to wave as he came nearer to where Sandy was directing his streams of sand into different houses. But when Jack tried to pass him a big gold stop sign appeared above his head and he screeched to a halt – if you can screech in midair – so that he didn't run into Sandy and his sand which had settled itself right in front of Jack. He had no desire to fall asleep and out of the sky.

"Can't stop Sandy!" He told his silent friend before trying to pass him. Sandy stopped him once more. A pleading expression on his wide face. Images danced above his head again. They were a little too fast but his staying hands got his meaning across.

Wait for me.

"I really can't Sandy; Tooth will kick me from the Pole to Florida if I'm late!" He widened his eyes and gave his friend a face of terror. Sandy rolled his eyes. A swooning figure formed over his head and he gave a look that said 'Really?'

"Okay, so maybe that's exaggerating a little but she'd definitely send the fairies after me again." Jack said grinning guilty and ducking his head. "I do really need to go Sandy! I don't want to disappoint Tooth."

Sandy could definitely hear the embarrassing note of panic creeping into Jack's voice. He silently sighed and waved the ancient boy on. Jack leered devilishly and began to swing around his glittering sleepy friend. But before he got too far a thought came hurtling back to him. "Hey Sandy? What's a…" He paused, stumbling over what Adaliah had called him so mockingly, almost teasing. "Ninigiku?"

A grin cracked across Sandy's face. Rapid fire images burst over him. It was Jack's turn to laugh as he shook his head hair flopping over his brow. "Sandy, I've got no idea what you're saying. Either slow it down or dumb it down." Sandy stopped mid-slide show and grinned at him. Two images formed over his head before he winked and floated away. A question mark and North's sleigh.

Ask North.

Why did Jack get the feeling the translation wasn't going to be complimentary?

The Wind tugged at his old blue sweater and leggings begging him to let them soar for a while. Waving to Sandy who was still chortling at his expense, Jack flung his arms out and was pushed backward.

He flew like that for a while, staff in hand, the Wind spinning him over and over, falling towards the earth then rocketing upwards. Without warning the Wind would flip him upside down and drop him like a rag doll. Jack laughed and swore until it picked him up again and jettisoned him toward North's workshop.

Towards home.

He wasn't late when the Wind sling shot him through the South Tower's open window. He hit the opposite wall in a crouch and fell cracking up over the way he sprawled out over the frozen bed. Tooth was clanging around downstairs putting the finishing touches on dinner. He was a little hesitant on what she was making him. What does a Tooth Fairy eat? Does she eat the same things Jaime does? Jack had seen him and his family on quite a few occasions eating together and laughing. At one point they'd had a huge turkey, mashed potatoes, pies of all kinds, and corn on the cob. When he'd talked to Jaime after he was sent to bed for the night, he'd told him it was Thanksgiving.

Jack wanted a Thanksgiving. One with his family, with the Guardians. He wanted mounds of food and the laughing faces of his friends. Involuntarily his thoughts drifted to Adaliah. What would she be like in that kind of place? Would she be happier? When they were talking in the air she had seemed so tense and unhappy. He remembered his wish to see her smile. He really did want to see that. He wanted her to smile like she trusted him. Smile like Jaime and the Guardians smiled. His next thought was that he was crazy for thinking Adaliah would ever trust him. One thing he knew was that no one trusted easily and immortals trusted even less.

Jack was gliding lazily around his room drawing with frost on the floor of his bedroom. His room was covered with murals. One wall held a snowball fight; that first one he'd had after defeating Pitch. The one opposite had sledding children. The wall with the window had the Guardians and Jaime laughing and shoving each other. The wall opposite, the one he'd landed on when he'd come zooming in through the window had a map of the world. Tiny single snowflakes glinted all over the map marking each child that believed in Jack Frost. It looked pitiful compared to the large glittering sphere North had. But there was definitely more than Jack had at the start. About a hundred thousand per continent believed in him. And he could feel it. Baby Tooth came buzzing in. She looped once around his head as he soared through the air putting a few more swirls of frost swirling across his floor. She squeaked in his ear and flew ahead of him.

"Hey Baby Tooth. Dinner ready?" He touched the top of her head with a finger and grinned lazily. She cheeped at him and flew around the room chattering before zooming out the open door and down the spiral staircase to North's main workshop. Jack followed hooting with laughter at having narrowly missed the staircase. He caught up to her and she chattered irritably racing him faster through the final doorway into the open workshop. He almost decapitated a yeti carrying a load of toy parts flying through the arch and to the balcony that overlooked the rest of the yetis working away to Christmas.

Jack perched there on the railing peering down to the globe rotated on its axis showing off the glowing dots of children all over the world. He shot a mischievous grin over his shoulder at the Yeti, "Sorry about that!" The Wind gently lifted him up and swung him out across the huge rotating earth with the echoing yell of the yeti in his wake. The Wind deposited him at the doorway to the dining room on the first floor.

That warm sense of home swelled in Jack's chest as he opened the doors and strolled in staff twirling at his side. North and Bunny were already sitting at the table as Tooth flitted about taking heaping plates from her fairies and placing them in the already minimal space left on the table.

"Welcome back Jack!" North boomed over the table his smile immediate and kind. "Did you take care of that blizzard?"

"It wasn't a blizzard North. It was a freeze. They're different." Jack answered automatically leaping lightly on the back of his high backed chair and squatting, eyes scanning the mountains of food. It wasn't anything like he'd feared. There was pie, corn, cake, chicken, turkey, something that looked suspiciously like kangaroo, pasta, rice, and soup. Who the hell did Tooth think she was feeding? Were they eating with the yetis too?

"What's the difference?" Bunny called from his seat, shaking off an elf that tried to climb up the side of his chair. "They're both cold and annoying. Like you Icy Pole(1)."

"What does that even mean?" Jack poked the kangaroo meat gingerly with his staff grinning like a loon. "Hey Bunny, isn't that your cousin right there?"

"I'm not a bloody kangaroo ya wally(2)!" Bunny yelled down the long table, throwing a chicken leg at Jack. Jack laughed raucously freezing the leg as it passed him and thwacked an unlucky elf scampering in with a plate full of biscuits.

"That isn't even a word." Jack retorted childishly sticking his tongue out at his best friend. The Pooka for his part wasn't much better as he promptly pulled his eye down and stuck his own tongue out.

"Bunny! Jack! Come on! I spent four hours making this! Don't sully it with your gross facial expressions." Tooth came flying over the table to stop by Jack's side and sink into the chair there.

Immediately Jack's eyes followed her graceful movements, feeling his heart pick up pace. After defeating pitch Tooth had come running into his arms, twirling him around as she laid her head on his shoulder. Jack could distinctly remember the sweet smell of her feathers and the way her hips felt under his hands as he caught her. Before he could have made sense of the growing shuddering sensation in his chest she had jumped away smiling apologetically. He supposed it was because it was his first hug. Before that no one could see him, no one could touch him, and he had limited contact with other spirits.

Jack looked away from Tooth's form and caught Bunny wiggling his eyebrows in his direction.

He threw a napkin at him. Bunny threw a fork back.

"Seriously?" Tooth asked, exasperated.

"Sorry Tooth." Bunny and Jack chorused both grinning sheepishly.

"Now hurry and try everything, I want to know what you think." Tooth rubbed her hands together and began to put a little bit of everything on her plate.

North chortled at the other end of the table, "You two are already vzbityye(3)"

Tooth sighed as two pieces of kangaroo hurtled toward Father Christmas from Bunny's end of the table, hitting him square on the nose and forehead. "You'll will never grow up will you?" Jack laughed loudly as he too helped himself to the mountains of food piled around the table. Once his plate was full he considered the variety of edibility. Because he didn't really eat he had no idea how much he should eat or even how much he could eat. He glanced around surreptitiously at his friends. North and Bunny were talking and gesturing wildly, eating in between words. He noticed Tooth smiling to herself beside him and looking at him out of the corner of her eye. She delicately took a spoonful of corn and slipped it into her mouth, chewing carefully. Jack blushed lavender all the down his neck. He copied Tooth's actions and dug into the food. Using only his spoon.

It was good. Amazingly good. Tooth was an awesome cook and he opened his mouth to tell her so. But all that came out was a garbled, "Zis es grafe Toof." Bunny laughed at Jack from behind his mound of what seemed to be boiled carrots. Jack's lips twitched and he pinched a pea between his thumb and forefinger before zinging the now frozen vegetable to connect with the side of Bunny's head. His friend fell guffawing out of his chair and onto the floor rubbing the sore spot.

Tooth face palmed. North, the only male not flinging food, engaged her in conversation while Jack and Bunny had an impromptu food fight.

"You'll never hit me Kangaroo! I'm too fast for you!" Jack was flitting around the surface of the long table brandishing a bowl of peas along with his staff, flinging the occasional frozen one at the Easter Bunny like bullets. Occasional because he ate every other handful. The challenge was answered by a half eaten pie to the face.

"An what do ya think of that you flippin dag(4)!" Bunny shouted jubilantly from under his fort of chicken and turkey legs.

At this moment Sandy came floating through the door and was greeted with a cold piece of cake to the face that Bunny had dodged moments before. Jack and Bunny went silent as the older surprised spirit wiped the frosting off his chin and examined it. He licked his finger thoughtfully and grinned. A trumpet appeared over his head and used his sand to grab the food nearest him and begin to sling it at his foes.

Bunny and Jack, now united against the new threat, stood behind Bunny's meat fort. Bunny yelled maddeningly. "Come and get it you blasted spook!" Jack just howled his agreement as rice and corn came raining down on them

"Boys." Tooth didn't yell but the sharp words sliced through the threes cries of war. "Can we not destroy the dining room anymore? Why don't the three of you sit down and we'll pretend to have a normal conversation for once." She stared hard at them. One by one they slid into seats. Jack sat back down by Tooth his staff settling between his legs, Sandy took the head of the table across from a laughing, gasping North and Bunny discarded his defense of legs to settle into his across from Jack with his back to the door.

There was continued chatter from Tooth. Sandy put in his silent word occasionally as Tooth talked about the latest spirits she had seen and heard of, the last child she'd seen. She asked Jack about Jaime but didn't leave enough room for him to answer before going on telling him that the fairies missed him and wanted him to come to the palace and play again. Remembering Baby Tooth for the first time during dinner Jack glanced around for her. She lay sleeping in a bed of napkins beside North's plate.

When was the last time they had played together? They should go out tomorrow. Them and maybe Tooth as well, just the three of them. Where should they go? He wanted somewhere that wouldn't be too hot for him to handle or too cold for her. Maybe they could go to Canada, or Alaska. He'd have to ask some kids there about the best sledding hills. Tooth would like that.

"And Jack? What did you do?" Jack jerked out of his ponderings to glance at Tooth who was staring expectantly.

"What?" He asked, confused. She hadn't sounded patronizing, what could he have done?

"What did you do today?" She asked again a smile curling her shell lips up.

"Oh! Well there was that freeze in Europe-"He was cut off by Bunny's mumbling. "It's not a blizzard Kangaroo." After dodging a carrot he continued. "And then I hung around Russia for a while." I was interrupted again this time by North.

"Ah Rossiya, my homeland, did you visit Moscow? Or perhaps Lake Baikal? I heard it is most beautiful when covered in ice!" North beamed over at his small blue friend who grinned. A usual response.

"Nah, I just flew over the countryside. The view's pretty cool at dusk. I ran into Sandy there who tried to tackle me." The golden man eating at the end of the table rolled his eyes indulgently at Jack. But that brought Jack back to the slightly agitating spirit he'd literally run into. "Speaking of, North? Do you know what a…" He paused trying to remember exactly what Adaliah'd called him. "A ninigiku is?"

Raucous laughter erupted from the bearded man as he glanced tearfully at Sandy who was already grinning and nodding.

"Jack! Who called you this?" He sputtered around deep chuckles. "They must have known you quite well."

Jack frowned disapprovingly, a foreboding feeling creeping up his gut. He looked to Tooth who was just as confused as him but still grinning in response to North's contagious laugh. "Why? What does it mean?"

"It – it means that you are a jumpy and arrogant person. Literally it means Lord Bright Eyes" North giggled through the sentence nearly choking on his own entertainment. Jack huffed.

"I'm not arrogant or jumpy." He said pouting shifting into a crouch on his seat, clutching his staff to him.

It was Bunny's turn to roll his eyes, "If there's one thing ya are mate, it's jumpy." He said brandishing a fork with piece of some unknown mush on it.

"But who called you that Jack?" Tooth's face was politely curious but her eyes twinkled just a bit. Jack felt himself lower in temperature another purple blush coming on the longer he stared at Tooth's lavender gaze. "They must have been quite old to be insulting you in Sumerian."

"Sumerian?"

A tinkling from the end of the table had Jack turning in Sandy's direction. He had molded his mashed potatoes into what looked like crumbling ruins, amazingly detailed for steaming starch.

"Yes, they are quite old, the oldest civilization if I'm not much mistaken. They were the first human settlement." North nodded wisely before shooing an elf away from his glass.

"Were any of you there?"

"Just Sandy. He's a geezer." Bunny grinned conspiratorial at Sandy who was busy eating his ruins. "Back then it was just him and Manny. No Christmas, no Easter, no little fairies running around collecting teeth. Of course Pitch wasn't really a problem back then."

Jack, impressed, looked over his smaller friend with new eyes. Sandy looked up just in time to realize the whole table was staring at him. He swallowed and pointed at himself mouthing 'Me?'

Jack laughed and the rest of the table fell into easy chatter.

"The elves and yetis had snowball fight today, nearly ruined the sleigh." North chuckled deeply. It being January Jack supposed they didn't need to rush all that much in the toy making department.

"I'm guessin the yetis won." Bunny said.

"No! The elves won by sheer number and superior dodging." Tooth giggled at North's proud smile, and looked at Jack happily.

Damn, he thought, there's that blush again.

"Jack didn't you meet another spirit a while ago too?" She said eyes wide and pleasantly freezing him all over.

He grinned in answer. "Kamba, she was great." He'd come across her while freezing the desert over, just to see if he could. Kamba, the spirit in question, had lit his ass on fire for waking her up during the winter months. Because it was the middle of December she was hiding out in the hottest place she could until she could make a comeback. Of course afterwards the summer spirit had invited him inside her tent to cool down in the shade. He had warily agreed. He'd left with another new friend.

"Only you would try freezing a desert Jack. If you're not careful you'll bring Seraphina down on your head." Tooth's lips quirked up even as she tried to wave a finger at him.

"Who's-?"

"You really need to be more careful Jack. You never know what a spirit is capable of. How many strays have you come across that attacked you?" North cut in with a serious look in his eye.

Jack ducked his head guiltily, "Not that many. Maybe five or six… and none of them were serious."

"There are dangerous ones Jack. Next time you may meet one that would seriously harm you before you get your say." Tooth's hand came down on top of his on his staff, worry in her eye.

Bunny chimed in, "Nah the snowflake can take care of himself. He's up to what a million or so believers? He's getting pretty powerful."

"He still hasn't met the amount of spirits we have. He wouldn't know who to stay away from." North put a hand to his chin, thinking. "Perhaps someone should teach him about the worse ones."

"I don't need a tutor, North." Jack grumbled, not as displeased as he sounded. It made him happy to know they cared enough. That they would gladly teach him – as easily distracted and troublesome as he was – about the dangers he could find. That they would tell him to be careful. He also like that they interrupted him and cut him off so easily. Like they had done this for years rather than the few months that had passed since Pitch's defeat. It was as though they were a true family, one that had grown up together and knew what buttons to push without going too far, they knew how to keep it light so that it didn't hurt. While Jack had remembered some of his life before being Jack Frost, big chunks were still missing. The parts about his parents and all of them together. He remembered his sister. All of the memories with his sister he had. He didn't have any of a family.

Jerking back to the present Jack notice North hadn't paid any mind to his comment about not needing a tutor. "Perhaps Sandy could teach him?" He asked glancing at Sandy who made a non committal gesture.

Bunny piped up. "Not exactly the best way if he has to read a picture book." Sandy threw a bone at him and Bunny waved him off, "No offense meant Sandy."

"I'll teach him!" Tooth said, a beautiful grin lighting her face and sending it Jacks way. Once his eyes met hers a definite blush crept prettily over her cheeks and looked at North instead. Dizziness swept through his head and settled low in his stomach making his bare toes curl.

"Perfect!" North boomed happily and started up an entirely new conversation.

Once dinner was finally eaten, with no leftovers despite the over packed table, they all departed one by one calling out their goodbyes. Bunny vanished through one of his tunnels in the floor throwing one last wink and grin Jack's way. Jack threw a snowball down the tunnel and as it closed Jack heard a muffled cry of annoyance. Sandy whisked back up through the door to the main globe room and out an open window in the higher floors. North went off to tinker in his inner-workshop leaving Jack and Tooth to clean up. The elves tried to help but once they made Tooth shriek when they broke the third plate Jack chased them out with snowy versions of themselves.

"Thank you, Jack." Tooth sighed at last hovering over the remains of the plate a broom and dustpan in hand.

"No worries Tooth." He watched her as she cleaned the broken glass up, admiring her. She glanced up as she threw it away and gave him a look.

"Anything wrong Jack?" She asked.

Jack hurriedly searched for something to say, anything that wouldn't freak her out and chase her off. "I uh was just wondering about that person you mentioned earlier?"

Tooth looked confused for a moment or two before realization crossed her face. "Oh yes! Seraphina."

"Yeah, her." Jack sagged in relief as Tooth turned away and finished clearing the table, relieving him of her disconcerting lavender stare.

"Well, she's Mother Nature. We don't know a lot, but…"

Jack looked up noticing Tooth had paused as she stared off into space. "But what?"

"We do know she's powerful." She paused glancing up at me through indecently long lashes. Jack hurriedly looked back to the dishes he was precariously balancing on his staff as he crouched on the corner of the table. "We're not quite sure but, we think she might be Pitch's daughter. But we know that she has created almost all of the nature spirits." She picked the rest of the plates up and started toward the kitchen door. Jack flew after her.

"Almost all?"

"Man in the Moon created you Jack."

Jack raised his head from the plates he'd managed to set on the counter beside Tooth's. His heart paused in his chest, a remembered shudder of loneliness halting it. Flashes of icy water, colder than even his skin, of the moon rippling in and out of focus. For just one moment he was transported back into freezing water and the feeling of lungs sucking at nothing. For one moment they stopped. Jack stared at Tooth and tried to find his smile, the one that he always had with him like a shadow. He found it, and he stuck it in place. His smile was kind and understanding and everything she needed to know that he was ok.

It took only moments, not even a full three seconds could've passed when he answered her. "Well, yeah." She didn't notice him pause. Or she didn't mention it. She started to the huge sink in the center of the kitchen to fill it with soapy water.

"So far you're the only nature spirit we know of that was made by him. I suppose there could be others…" Tooth wiped a sudsy hand across her brow, getting rid of some invisible spot and leaving behind a trail of water and bubbles. She grinned up at him through her purple lashes. "Sorry Jack I guess I'm not the best teacher."

Jack wasn't really sure what made him reach over. It could've been the guilty almost playful look on Tooth's face or perhaps the tease of a mess on her brow. He was perched like a bird on the corner of the sink, swinging his staff like another limb. He stopped when she looked at him. Slowly, Jack leaned over and swiped at her forehead with the back of the hand before tracing his thumb from her temple to her chin goose bumps trailing behind his touch. Tooth's eyes widened and pink bloomed on her cheeks and spread to the tip of her nose. A similar purple hue crept up Jack's neck. His throat almost failed him by closing up. "You're a great teacher Tooth." It was worth the embarrassment to see her smile up at him like he was the best thing to happen to her all night. But of course the embarrassment came right back to squelch that smugness. Almost as if he just realized what he was doing Jack dropped his hand and retreated to fly around the ceiling of North's huge kitchen.

"Thank you Jack" Jack merely smiled at Tooth before they dropped into easier conversation. When the dishes were done he helped Tooth put them away. They didn't leave the kitchen. They stayed and talked and laughed for a while just the two of them. And it was nice. The kitchen felt like no man's land. Like if they stepped out of the confines of the room the world would hurtle back toward them in full force and twice as loud. Only when the moon was at his highest did they finally say their goodbyes and head toward their respective lairs. Tooth to her castle and Jack to his tower.

Jack reached his room and immediately flopped onto his covers keeping his staff close to him. He lazily glanced around admiring his own handiwork. Everything was frozen or covered in fantastical patterns of frost. Only when he rolled over and spotted the mural he'd made on the opposite wall of kids sledding (one of them looking suspiciously like Jamie) did he remember that he'd forgotten to ask Tooth to go sledding with him tomorrow.

But then his eyes drifted to the pattern he had created just before going to dinner. A huge mural over the floor of his room. It was a girl with an Egyptian robe and an oddly composed face. A flat nose, tilted eyes and wide cheekbones, she seemed to be a mix of cultures. She wasn't smiling because he didn't know what parts of her face would light up or crinkle or if she had dimples. Her lips were full and set in a hard line, and her body danced across his floor like she had the strings of the world in her hands. Her body was lithe and awe inspiring even in stillness. Adaliah danced across his bedroom floor like an ancient goddess.

Jack decided not to go sledding with Tooth tomorrow. He wanted to find a stray spirit. His curiosity wouldn't allow anything else.

1) Popsicle

2) Idiot

3) Whipped

4) A funny person, nerd, goof, loser


Afterword: I am so so so so sorry this took so long. At first I was just putting it off but then exams came. Jeez its been a crazy few months. But hey good news! I got my scores back and not bad; just enough to convince myself I'm not a dunce. Anyhoo Review Review Review and tell me what you think of my take on Jack Frost. I hope it wasn't too horrible. I was having major issues trying to find different ways to say 'he smiled' (BTW 8 Pages! Woohoo new record!)

REVIEW!

Bye ya'll! Sorry for my ramblings, hope to write soon!